Groups | Search | Server Info | Login | Register

Groups > comp.graphics.rendering.renderman > #12

ANN: SiTex Graphics Air 11 adds Shader Networks, Mesh Baking, and Per-Face Textures

Show all headers | View raw

SiTex Graphics has released version 11 of its Air production rendering
software. Highlights of the new release include:

Shader Networks and Layered Shaders

Air 11 extends the RIB shading architecture to allow multiple surface
or displacement shaders to be assigned to an object and connected
together to build a shading network from pre-compiled components. The
companion Air Stream plug-in for Maya uses this new capability to
translate Maya shading networks for rendering with Air. In addition to
shader networks, simple layering of multiple shaders can be used to
apply different materials to different areas of a surface or to add
details such as decals. Extra shaders can also be used to compute
additional output values for a render pass.

Mesh Baking

Release 11 of the BakeAir baking tool has a new mesh baking mode that
stores shading results at mesh vertices and exports meshes for later
re-use with Air or other rendering engines. Air shaders for occlusion,
indirect lighting, and subsurface scattering have been extended to
automatically utilize baked values when they are present on a mesh.

PTEX for Per-Face Texture Mapping

The open-source PTEX library defines a new file format that stores a
separate texture for each face in a polygon or subdivision mesh,
allowing textures to be applied without the assignment of UV
coordinates. Air's implementation allows PTEX textures to be used with
most existing Air shaders simply by enabling a new attribute. BakeAir
can render arbitrary shading results to PTEX textures.

Environment Shaders

A new environment shader type provides a programmable interface for
shading rays that miss all objects in a scene. The Air 11 release
includes a physically-based sky environment shader as well as a
companion sunlight shader.

Other new features include a deep image hider, tone mapping, directory
mapping, smarter texture caching, and new ray tracing optimizations.

More information can be found on the SiTex Graphics web site:

www.sitexgraphics.com

Regards,

Scott Iverson
SiTex Graphics

--
AIR - Fast, Affordable, Reliable Rendering for Windows and Linux
BakeAIR - The Shading and Lighting Baker
TweakAIR - Interactive Production Rendering

Features:
  Fast Scanline Rendering - Ray Tracing - Multithreading -
  Programmable Shading - Global Illumination - Motion Blur -
  Depth of Field - Displacement - Subdivision Meshes - Blobbies -
  Trimmed NURBs - Curves - Particles - Area Lights - Caustics -
  Texture Mapping - Shadow Mapping - Automatic Meshing -
  Procedural Geometry - Level of Detail - Ambient Occlusion -
  RIB compatibility - Distributed Rendering with Vortex -
  Image-Based Lighting - High-Dynamic Range (HDR) Input and Output -
  Subsurface Scattering - Toon Rendering and Illustration -
  Volume Rendering - PTEX

Back to comp.graphics.rendering.renderman | Previous | Next | Find similar

Thread

ANN: SiTex Graphics Air 11 adds Shader Networks, Mesh Baking, and Per-Face Textures Scott Iverson <sitexgraphics@gmail.com> - 2011-08-02 13:52 -0700

csiph-web